Politics can leave nominees in limbo

By The Daily News

Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 at 08:02 PM.

With Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and North Carolina Congressman Mel Watt tapped for federal posts by President Obama, it brings to mind a particular kind of political mischief that goes on in Washington.

Both the mayor and the congressman must gain Senate approval before they can go to work in the Obama administration, Foxx as secretary of transportation and Watt as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Appointments should be delayed for legitimate reasons, not based on political philosophy.

Senators on both sides of the aisle notoriously poke the opposing party by holding up nominations. Any senator can stymie a nomination and is not required to explain why.

More times than not, it is purely politics.

According to the Greensboro News and Record, which serves readers in Watt’s district, more than 70 presidential nominations currently await Senate committee hearings.

It cuts both ways, however, and there is a fine example right here in North Carolina of the difficulty it can cause, not for the president but for the person nominated.

With Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and North Carolina Congressman Mel Watt tapped for federal posts by President Obama, it brings to mind a particular kind of political mischief that goes on in Washington.

Both the mayor and the congressman must gain Senate approval before they can go to work in the Obama administration, Foxx as secretary of transportation and Watt as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Appointments should be delayed for legitimate reasons, not based on political philosophy.

Senators on both sides of the aisle notoriously poke the opposing party by holding up nominations. Any senator can stymie a nomination and is not required to explain why.

More times than not, it is purely politics.

According to the Greensboro News and Record, which serves readers in Watt’s district, more than 70 presidential nominations currently await Senate committee hearings.

It cuts both ways, however, and there is a fine example right here in North Carolina of the difficulty it can cause, not for the president but for the person nominated.

Back in 1987, President Regan nominated Richard Voorhees, an attorney from Gaston County, for a federal judgeship. The nomination was quite an honor for Voorhees, a proud moment for his family and friends, indeed, for his entire community.

The politics that went along with this appointment began making the nomination seem more a curse than an honor.

Voorhees, who had a one-man law practice, saw clients peel off, believing he soon would be giving up lawyering for a new job on the bench. They took their business elsewhere, and with it a good bit of the Voorhees family livelihood.

After the announcement, it took a year for Voorhees’ nomination to be voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee — unanimously, mind you — along with three other nominees. The others quickly moved along to gain Senate approval, but Voorhees found his nomination stuck by — you guessed it — a senator’s hold.

Democrats had it figured out that if Voorhees’ nomination could be placed on hold a few more months, their man Michael Dukakis would be headed to the White House. That hallucination would mean the Democrats would get to make the pick for the federal judgeship.

History writes, of course, that Reagan won a second term and Voorhees became a federal judge — but not without a great deal of anxiety and unnecessary difficulty for his family and his clients.

In April, Judge Voorhees’ portrait went up in the U.S. courthouse in Charlotte, marking his 25-year anniversary on the bench.

It is to be hoped the same shenanigans won’t mark the Senate approval process for Rep. Watt or Mayor Foxx. Unless someone in the Senate can find an honest reason — truly disqualifying actions — their nominations should move along swiftly.

Lives are placed on hold when nominations are placed on hold. Voters deserve the opportunity to select a new mayor and a new congressman. Families deserve to get on with their lives.